Broken Hearts Parade Revised
by Mazarine Fennec
Summary: In a world of almost total pacifism, one soldier tries to find his place... Duo has given up on the dream he THOUGHT he had. now, he's moving on to bigger, better and blonder things..will Zechs have just what it takes to help this pilot find out who he is


Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, however I DO own the original ideas and what not that many of you will NOT recognize.

AN:... I feel so bad. Here I've had the first like... three chapters written out ,but I haven't found it in me to actually sit down and type it up for you. I feel so bad about it. And upon that, I've been terribly busy... Life, for me, at the moment, isn't going to well, and I'm trying to cope with it the best that I can, I can only take a few steps at a time and even THEN its frustration. Anyways, I've gone and redone the entire plot for the most part, added in something far more intelligible between Duo and Heero besides giving you all the vague details. I'm hoping, as the suggestions stated, that it is a bit more organized and readable than the first version. So sit back, have fun, and get to readin' all!!!

WARNINGS: Pure male on male gay stuffs XD... if you're offended.. Well, I've now warned you, so if you end up scarred for life... then it's YOUR fault and I don't want to hear about it!

_Inspired by Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek"_

**Chapter One: I'm Movin' On**

_where are we?_

_what the hell is going on?_

_the dust has only just begun to fall_

_crop circles in the carpet_

_sinking feeling..._

Duo groaned , his back cracking in protest as he rolled over in the bed. It was too early and that damn alarm clock was dead set against him sleeping in. Oh well, he thought, rolling over once more and burrowing himself into the sheets, Heero would just get annoyed of the noise and shoot the damn thing. It was no sweat off his back... At least, that's what he _thought_ would happen... only after a few seconds, he opened his eyes to realize that nothing was going to happen. Heero wasn't there, in fact, Duo could tell he hadn't been there for a while– his side of the bed was rather cold. He let out a breath, maybe he'd been called in early for another solo mission... after all, he never took Duo on missions any more. The radio continued to play...

_spin me round again_

_and rub my eyes,_

_this can't be happ–_

"Oh for the love of Shinigami shut UP!" he yelled, slamming his fist against the snooze button, successfully managing to either mutilate or quiet the contraption. The irate brunette ran a hand through his bangs, letting out another huff before he decided it was best that he get his lazy bum out of bed and get ready for another unbearable long day at the Preventer offices. Pushing back the covers, he placed his feet to the floor and walked towards the door to the left of the bedroom, un-braiding his hair with another yawn.

Half an hour passed before the brunette walked out of the bathroom, dry and dressed in the standard greens that all Preventers were forced to wear. He tied off the end of his hair and walked into the kitchen. Flicking on the light, the first thing he noticed was the empty cereal bowl in the sink. He shook his head and sighed when he saw the note on the fridge, written in Heero's neat penmanship.

Duo,

Mission. Will not return

until Monday 09, 0900

–Heero

Duo snorted and crumpled up the note, tossing it across the room and glaring when it landed just inches from his target– the trash bin. That's all it ever was anymore.. Heero leaving him notes in the morning, going off on missions that kept him away at weeks at a time. It wouldn't have been so bad if he'd been allowed out of the office once in a while to actually go on some of those lengthy missions. However, he knew that Heero only took the solo ones. His excuse was always that he preferred it that way, that there weren't as many liabilities... Duo knew better than that because it wasn't just heero that did it.

No one ever took Duo Maxwell with them on a mission, and he knew exactly why. They thought him more of a liability than anything. They thought him and his skills to be far more insufficient than he'd put down on his resume. They looked at the surface, smiling and laughing with the goofball Maxwell.. And that's all they ever saw.. Duo knew better, he knew they were wrong... damn wrong. No one knew much of anything, save for the special few, not including his flatmate and lover. Duo was very intelligent, in fact he had two degrees under his belt thanks to online college courses during the war. Granted, he also had the skills from when he was younger and when he was a pilot, but still, people wanted hard proof, not a few scars and battle stories. As far as he was concerned, those two degrees made him just as capable of handling situations as everyone else.. After all, they were in engineering and mechanical studies(AN: I'm such a bullshitter). Hell, he was even rebuilding something so complex he knew the mechanics at the base wouldn't even know where to begin, so there.. He was good for SOMETHING.

Grabbing his keys and finishing his coffee, he headed towards the door, grabbing his helmet off of the stool next to the coat rack. He shook his head. It was hard, to know you didn't fit into a world that you helped to make... a world of total peace and calm. It sucked to know you didn't even fit in as a blue collar working man. He didn't even know why on earth he still stuck around. Especially when he was obviously unneeded and unnecessary. Why one earth wasn't he somewhere where the skills he had were in need? Where people listened to him, idolized him and looked up to him. Pausing in putting on the helmet, he stared at a picture that was duct taped to his windshield.

Heero Yuy...

Heero was his reason, Heero was _always_ his reason. He was finally happy and people respected him, And because Duo loved him, he stayed.. He stayed like the obedient puppy he was expected to be, like the person he thought Heero wanted...But.. Heero was becoming increasingly distant, and was beginning to take more and more missions and that left Duo alone... very alone. He shook his head and put the helmet back on, kicking up the kick stand and turning the key.. He was beginning to think that.. Perhaps Heero was following the trend.. Maybe he didn't want Duo there at all...

When he arrived at work, things weren't looking up for him, because he had the time to think, the time to realize, and he was so confused. He walked into the building and showed the security guard his ID card before slunking towards his office.

"Good morning Duo!" the secretary chirped, handing him that morning's files.

"Morning Millie..." he mumbled, walking into the office and closing the door. He hung up his coat and walked to his desk, filtering through the claims and the mission reports that he would be needing to type up... boring desk work. He booted up the laptop on his desk and immediately got to work, a first for Duo Maxwell. However, as the minutes and hours drug on by, he found it increasingly harder to concentrate due to his over active mind and it's insatiable need to keep on thinking. Putting his head into his hand, rubbing his brow, he stared half-heartedly at the paperwork before him... it was too quiet...

"Maybe if I find something on television..." he muttered, reaching across his desk to pick up the little black remote. He and Heero had installed the tv for when they were working longer nights... when they _had_ been working overtime. He needed a distraction, and noise was the perfect distraction from an over emotional brain.

"**The spiders!! They want me to tap dance I don't wa--."**

"**Good morning Archer family!!--"**

"**Believe it!!--"**

"**Let's get going and Fix it right!!! Twist and turn make it –"**

"**We are Autonomous Robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron, but you can call us–"**

Duo growled in frustration as he flipped through the channels. He should have known, it was in the morning... on a Friday.. The only things on were children's cartoons, movies on Starz and shitty romance soaps. He shook his head and clicked the button once more. His eyes widened proportionally as he dropped the remote to his desk. He had landed on a news channel...There, walking across the screen, arm in arm and conversing– though it was a rather one sided conversation– together.. Were Heero and Relena... Duo shook his head to rid himself of the horrible image and looked back at the television... They were still there.. What was Heero doing with HER?! Duo's heart wrenched.. He was letting Relena touch him, hold his arm... lean against him, things that Duo, as te other partner in the relationship, was to be doing... What made everything possibly worse, was the fact that he knew Heero had lied... heero had lied to him, something, Duo himself couldn't stress enough that he hated.

Heero had promised him upon the initiation of their relationship( after a rather wild bout of sex) that he would keep away from Relena. Duo knew what kind of clutchy, clingy person she was, and he wanted to prevent Heero from being subjected to it. And there he was... breaking trust, a precious thing. He slumped in his chair, staring blankly at the screen. It was obviously a sign, a statement.. It was obvious that Heero was throwing this in Duo's face as if to say. "That's right, I've chosen not to be gay anymore, and instead of telling you, I'm going behind your back with your nemesis." So now that Heero didn't want him around, and no one else did... what was he to do?

"I need to talk to Wu..." he told himself, quickly getting up from his chair and heading out the door. Wufei, surprisingly had become his closest friend after the war. In fact, the two of them had found that they had more in common than originally thought, and that Duo didn't mind Wufei's rants so much and Wufei didn't mind Duo's talkativeness so much. He shared his wisdom, listened to him and helped to pick up the broken pieces of Duo when needed. He was a security blanket for Duo, and as time went on, Sally, Wufei's steady girlfriend as of 4 years, had become something close to that as well.

Entering the infirmary, glad that it was empty, duo locked the door behind him. The sudden click noise had both medical supervisors looking up in confusion. They smiled when they saw their friend.

"Hello Duo dear... are you alright? You're rather pale... anything I can help with?" Sally asked, looking at the off expression in his face and the pal complexion to normally rosy cheeks. The braided man sat quietly on one of the cots and put his head into his hands. There was silence for a minute where Duo gathered his thoughts and Wufei and Sally exchanged glances before Duo spoke up, his voice soft, afraid and sad.

"What am I doing Wufei?" Wufei blinked... alright, something was definitely wrong with him, something that scared Wufei... he didn't like seeing Duo like this, it just wasn't natural.

"What are you talking about?"

"What am I doing here Wufei? No one really needs me. They think I'm a liability, a screw up..." Wufei stiffened.

"Who told you that?" Duo barked out a laugh.

"No one has to Wu... I'm not blind, I can see things that go on around me. Why do you think I'm stuck in an office when even my partner gets to go on missions?" he ran a hand through his bangs.

"I could easily ignore it until now, it just didn't matter as much because I _though_ that, you know, it would take a while before Une actually let me out on the field.. But now... it's so blatantly obvious. Why the hell do I even try? I mean, I miss those missions, I miss going out for some of the action, I miss going out and DOING!... and now, " he snorted, "Heero's left me for the pissy Princess herself."

Wufei and Sally both gasped, the former gripping the chair's arms and the latter dropping her pen.

"Heero left you?"

"For Relena?!" Duo nodded his head.

"Woke up alone... like normal, saw the note he left that said he'd gone on a mission... saw them on tv not more than ten minutes ago... practically holding hands." he growled the sentence out, fists clenched, eyes down cast.

"I shouldn't have made him promise to stay away from her, I mean, things untouchable are all that more appealing aren't they? I.. He's lied to me... its not worth it any more... to stay." He finally deflated, slumping back against the wall and closing his eyes.

"Oh Duo... I'm so sorry." Sally stood up and walked to the brunette, pulling him into her arms.

"It's so hard... Quat and Tro have moved on... honeymoonin' in NeoIreland, they run WEI.. You two are, ya know.. And heero _obviously_ has moved on... why can't I? Why is it so hard for me?" he closed his eyes, leaning into the embrace Sally was giving him, running her fingers through his hair soothingly. Wufei sat in his chair, arms crossed and Eyes closed in contemplative silence.

"We live in a world of almost total pacifism, where soldiers are obsolete." he began. "However, in certain cases, some soldiers just cannot live in a world without fighting for something." He explained and Sally looked at Duo.

"Duo, you've been fighting your whole life... fighting to live, to survive, to get revenge..to get those degrees... you're a great pilot and a great person, and it's cruel to shove you into an unfamiliar world where you can't fight, you can't use the one defense that's kept you alive this long." duo listened, it made sense to him... fighting, in a sense, he was a seasoned fighter.. For everything.

"So that's it then.. I just gotta get out of here and... go. I don't even know.. I dunno who I am... other than who I'm _supposed_ to be." Wufei and Sally nodded.

"Perhaps it's time you took a self exploration journey for yourself." Wufei suggested and Sally nodded her head vigorously.

"I agree, your first steps should be to get out of here with no ties.. Nothing to hold you back– I know!! Wufei, do we still own that little house on L2?" she asked.

"I never got rid of it– but we never use it."

"Why don't you use it Duo?" Sally asked with a bright smile. " it seems like such a waste for us to have it and not use it. If you could get use out of it, that would be perfect, and you'd be able to get away."

"You'd really let me use it?" the couple nodded.

"We hardly have the time off to visit L2, and it's small and perfect for you.. You'll have to pay rent of course." Wufei said, trying to lighten the mood. Duo gave a small laugh.

"Of course.. Th-Thank you.. Both of you.. I don't know where I'd be if I didn't have you to help me."

"Don't mention it Duo, we don't mind helping out a friend... now that you've got a house... what are your next steps?"

Duo leaned back, eyes closed as he thought. They were glad to see him feeling at least a little bit better.

"Gotta put together a resignation letter... clean out my locker and office.. Pack my shit, find a transport truck... have to get a hold of Howard.. I think he's in town, he might be able to cart my stuff up there... I have to get something large enough to transport... erm.. Deathscythe... All before Heero comes home on Monday."

"I'm sure I can have the transports authorized for your use, Quatre may be able to help with that. Come to think of it, I may be able to get you a job at the military base on L2 as well. You remember Zechs? He's the General there, I'm sure he has a position or two for you to fill." Wufei said and Duo nodded.

"I can get your resignation letter typed up and handed into Une within the hour... if we work fast enough, we can have you ready to leave by tonight, without rushing." Sally said and duo stood, smiling at the two of them.

"Thank you so much you guys, this means a lot.. I'm countin' on you guys." they nodded their heads in return.

"Get goin' Maxwell." Duo grinned and gave Wufei a mock salute before unlocking the door and exiting.

"If I didn't know any better, id say you have a soft spot for Duo." Wufei said to Sally as she sat back down at her computer.

"Oh who couldn't? What about you? What was that thing about Zechs?" she asked as Wufei , mimicking one of Duo's mischievous grins, leaned back.

"Zechs has been nursing a school girl crush on Duo since he first met him... I'm doing them both a favor.. I can guarantee that I just secured Duo a job as commander." he said smugly.

"Why Wufei, are you playing matchmaker?"

"Who me? Hardly, I'm just getting a job for my friend. The fact that his new employer just happens to have a crush on him is a bonus."

"You're a terrible liar."

"I know– now get off me woman, we've got work to do!"

Well, there was supposed to be more to this chapter, but I felt it was getting too long so I chopped it off. As for the television clips, can you guess where they're from? I'll give you a cookie if you can get them all right! You'll have to wait until next chappy to see the convo between Howard and Duo and the chaos that ensues with packing Reviews are appreciated!! Thanks again minna!!


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